I have never been a fan of the John Cena formula we’ve had since the U.S. Open challenge started in 2015. After years of being ridiculed for his moves of doom, Cena decided to add more to his arsenal.
While it started with great matches against Cesaro, Wade Barrett, and Sami Zayn, the formula wore out when matches started to feel like a collection of moves he couldn’t pull off properly and lots of double downs in between.
John Cena never understood that what mattered wasn’t the diversity of the moves, but the ability to pull them off smoothly and at the right time. But he can afford it.
The amount of downtime in his matches would feel like a slog for most wrestlers.
But John Cena has such a connection with the fans that the crowd gets fired up for every downtime, every sloppily executed move, and every near fall.
There was a lot to enjoy in this match, but I’m over this “big match John” formula, where all that matters is the crowd reaction and not the quality of the in-ring work.
AJ Styles is a fantastic worker, and I can’t help but think of a world where their encounters felt like competitive encounters as opposed to a wrestling parody. Randy Orton and Edge showed you could have the best of both worlds in their match at Backlash 2020.
The undercard was fine. Bronson Reed vs. Roman Reigns was slightly worse than their match at Clash in Paris, but still fine. Vaquer vs. Sratton and Iyo Sky & Rhea Ripley vs. the Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane) delivered about what you would expect.
The highlight of the show was Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins for the Crown Jewel Championship. The build to this has been good, with Rollins being more serious, wanting to prove to himself he could beat Cody Rhodes on his own. Both workers were smooth, and the pacing was great, starting pretty quickly and only slowing down at the end to trade near falls, which is a formula I enjoy much more.
Rollins and Rhodes have great chemistry together, more so than with their current challengers (CM Punk and Drew McIntyre, respectively). Knowing it was likely that Rollins would win after being down 0-3 to Rhodes in singles matches, I was curious as to how Rollins would win.
The Rolex watch that Cody gave him after WrestleMania 40 was a nice touch. It’s a good example of a MacGuffin that’s not overused, unlike CM Punk’s bracelet.
Rhodes and Rollins managed to tell a decent story despite featuring in a match for the most artificial title in wrestling.
Overall, WWE’s creative seems to be headed in the right direction. The build to Wargames is promising, with the tensions boiling between Roman Reigns and the Usos. The build to Asuka’s heel turn was fun, but the follow-up remains to be seen. Following up on big angles hasn’t been Triple H’s forte as of late. I’m wondering who Cody Rhodes’ next challenger will be, probably the winner of the match between Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre.
WWE’s programming in the last weeks has felt more exciting, with a focus on elevating current stars, debuting NXT stars and storylines advancing at just the right pace. Let’s enjoy it before the inevitable re-returns of Brock Lesnar and AJ Lee.
